Maine earthquake felt in Connecticut

Staff and wire reports

Updated 8:32 am, Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A Tuesday evening earthquake in southern Maine was felt in parts of Connecticut and around New England.

The U.S. Geological Survey at first estimated the quake as a 4.6 magnitude, but later downgraded that to 4.0. It hit at about 7:12 p.m. The epicenter, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, is about 4 miles deep, about about 20 miles west of Portland.

Residents in the Danbury area, including Bethel and Brookfield, and other parts of Fairfield County, including Monroe, reported feeling the quake, according to the USGS website. There were scattered reports of people feeling light shaking around the state.

The quake was also felt in Vermont, New Hampshire, eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. According to the USGS, earthquakes in New England are felt over 10 times the area than that of a similar quake occurring west of the Rockies.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Earthquakes are unusual in New England but they're not unheard of. In 2006, there was a series of earthquakes around Maine's Acadia National Park, including one with a magnitude of 4.2 that caused boulders to fall from ledges onto Acadia National Park's loop road. One of the park's trails was closed for three years because of damage from the quake.

The strongest earthquake recorded in Maine occurred in 1904 in the Eastport area, near the state's eastern border with Canada, according the Weston Observatory at Boston College. With a magnitude estimated at 5.7 to 5.9, it damaged chimneys and brick walls and could be felt in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

East Coast quakes, when they do occur, can be felt over a wide area. This is because the rocky terrain can efficiently transmit the shock wave.

A quake of magnitude 5.8 on Aug. 23, 2011, was centered in Virginia and felt all along the coast, including in New York, New Haven, New London, Bridgeport, Stamford and Boston.

This quake occurred in the geological region known as the Central Maine Basin; its rocks are mostly between 390 and 475 million years old, and they are mostly metamorphic. Geologists say that unlike some of the well-known faults in California, the faults in New England aren't as thoroughly studied because they slip so infrequently.

About 10 miles away in Waterboro, about 20 customers and staff at Waterboro House of Pizza ran outside when they heard a loud bang and the building shook.

"It was loudest bang you ever heard in your life. We actually thought it was an explosion of some type," said owner Jessica Hill. "The back door and door to the basement blew open."

In the mid-1700s, quakes damaged buildings in Boston 28 times. The largest known New England earthquake occurred in 1638 in Vermont or New Hampshire, with a magnitude of about 6.5.

In nearby Saco, Sue Hadiaris said, "The whole house shook. It felt like a train was coming right through the house. It was very unnerving because you could feel the floor shaking. There was a queasy feeling."

Afterward, Hadiaris called her 15-year-old niece in Falmouth to make sure she was safe. "She said, `We can cross that off our bucket list. We've lived through an earthquake,'" Hadiaris said.

The Seabrook Station nuclear plant, about 63 miles away in New Hampshire, declared an unusual event -- the lowest of four emergency classifications, but said it was not affected. The plant has been offline for refueling.

Jim Van Dongen, public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Safety said New Hampshire 911 got about 1,000 calls in the first hour after the quake, but they later dropped off. He said no major damage was reported.

Brief, but noticeable shaking was felt in downtown Boston and the surrounding area.